The Midnight Sky

The worst film I ever saw in theaters was Knowing in 2009. It was an utterly pointless Apocalyptic thriller in which nothing the main characters did even mattered. Way to waste two hours. So while I didn't like Netflix's Apocalyptic drama, The Midnight Sky, that much, at least it was better than Knowing.

George Clooney directed this adaptation of Lily Brooks-Dalton's novel Good Morning, Midnight. He also stars as Augustine Lofthouse, an Arctic research scientist who might as well be the last man on Earth. They never specify what happened, but in 2049, "The Event" covered Earth with radioactive clouds. Augustine is also terminally ill from an also unspecified illness. One day, he finds a little girl, Iris (Caoilinn Springall), in the base. He also finds the spaceship Aether returning to Earth. He needs to tell them to "go away, there's nothing there," but his signal's weak. So he and Iris have to set out for another base with better tech.

Meanwhile, we meet the crew of the spaceship Aether. Commander Tom (David Oyelowo) and his team of five went to one of Jupiter's moons. The crew includes Engineer Maya (Tiffany Boone), medic Sanchez (Demian Bichir), pilot Mitchell (Kyle Chandler) and Tom's partner, Sullivan (Felicity Jones). They have no idea what happened to Earth. Will they care when they get there? Or can ground control call Commander Tom and warn him in time?

The screenplay by Mark L. Smith, as you can tell, divides the story up in two fronts. But there's a third front: flashbacks to Augustine's days decades before "The Event." He's played there by Ethan Peck, who does an eerily good job at getting Clooney's mannerisms down.

Meanwhile, Clooney as Augustine tries to survive certain death on two different fronts. His time with Iris gives him some nice moments. But the pace of it all is frigid for two hours. A slow and almost humorless pace. It's slightly jolted by a jarring scene in which Augustine survives falling into the ice. It's jarring because it immediately, immediately, follows Iris's one and only line.

It's slightly better aboard the Aether. The crew there is a likable bunch of people. It's Sullivan who ultimately has the most relevance to the plot. She's an interesting character and her chemistry with Tom is good. Unfortunately, one of the crew is killed during a space walk. That moment soured my enthusiasm for the rest of the film. Especially since I considered that crew member a highlight. Their return trip is ultimately a slow space ride but the crew made it easier.

I also liked looking at the Aether. It's a marvelous rotating craft visualized by production designer Jim Bissell. The crew floating through zero gravity was pretty nifty, too. Check out the view of space. The view back on Earth, with the arctic snow and the bases therein, is good too. Martin Ruhe's cinematography is astounding as is Alexandre Desplat's latest Golden Globe nominated score. At least it's a good movie to see and hear.

The Midnight Sky is better than Knowing because it didn't try to sour-by-sugar its ending. The state of the world is bleak and the characters face an uncertain future. Just how will they ensure the survival of humanity? It's not a pretty picture. But it ultimately wasn't completely pointless. Still, be prepared for a slow two hours if you watch it. Try to find something more uplifting to watch afterwards. Even if it's, ironically, Mad Max Fury Road.